Polkadot set the pace overnight, up 17.0% to $1.239 and now 43.24% higher on the week. It headlines a broadly firmer altcoin tape even as the majors traded heavier.

Crude was the other standout, with Brent (UKOil) up 2.05% to $97.35 and WTI (USOil) up 1.74% to $92.23. Both are up roughly 13% on the month and about 47% on the year.

Crypto

Under the surface, direction was mixed. Bitcoin eased 0.71% to $78,520 and Ethereum slipped 0.26% to $2,482.65, though both hold hefty monthly gains of 22.87% and 32.68%.

BNB firmed 1.7% to $751.48 and XRP added 1.63% to $1.4184, the latter up 40.35% over the month. Tezos (XTZ) climbed 3.78%.

The softer names included Stellar, down 2.77% to $0.18797, Litecoin off 1.87% and Chainlink (LNK) down 1.79%. Cardano hovered flat at $0.2205, still 15.81% higher on the month.

Metals

Palladium was the day’s biggest drop, down 4.11% to $1,343.97. Gold fell 1.16% to $4,354.98, leaving it down 1.07% on the month but still 19.86% higher on the year.

Silver slipped 0.64% to $65.73, holding a 60.8% year-on-year gain. Platinum eased 0.46% to $1,823.67 while keeping a 3.32% weekly advance.

Currencies

The yen was the FX story. USD/JPY rose 0.1% to 153.97 but is down 3.1% on the week, and the cross-yen pairs echoed the move: EUR/JPY off 2.79% on the week to 178.94, GBP/JPY down 2.76% to 208.32 and NZD/JPY the weakest at -3.06% to 90.12.

The dollar was mixed elsewhere. EUR/USD held at 1.16216 and GBP/USD dipped 0.09% to 1.35331. USD/NOK fell 0.52% to 9.21602, tracking the firmer oil tape, while NZD/USD lagged, down 0.55% to 0.58499.

Indices

Equities leaned lower. The Nikkei 225 fell 1.53% to 65,032.63, though it remains up 49.51% on the year. Europe was softer too, with the DAX down 0.51% and the CAC 40 off 0.36%, the latter down 5.26% on the month.

Wall Street’s benchmarks eased: the Dow slipped 0.58% to 52,762.71, the S&P 500 fell 0.39% and the Nasdaq 100 held up better at -0.26%, still 1.17% higher on the week. The Hang Seng bucked the trend, up 0.14%.

Into the new session, crude and the yen remain the clearest movers on the board.